The last Democrat to represent Mississipi in the United States Senate, John Stennis, was a staunch segregationist. Now, more than three decades after Stennis left office, an African American district attorney named Scott Colom has become the first Democrat to serve Mississippi in the Senate since the Cold War, CNN reports.
Running against incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), Colom is a northern Mississippi district attorney who was obscure outside his home state prior to being thrust into the national limelight. Mississippi is an overwhelmingly Republican state where Hyde-Smith served a single term as senator and wished to serve a second one. Raised in a privileged family and attending a segregated private school in Mississippi, Hyde-Smith was a career politician who developed a rivalry with Colom after she blocked the Democrat's nomination to a federal judgeship.
Prior to Colom's surprisingly strong showing, few observers regarded Mississippi as being a potential pick-up state for the United States Senate. Even as President Donald Trump's approval rating plummeted and Republicans became vulnerable in ostensibly conservative states like Iowa, South Carolina, Texas and Kansas, Hyde-Smith was regarded as safe in a state that Trump won by 61 percent to 38 percent for the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris. Like Harris, Colom is a person color running against someone waging an explicitly racial campaign in a state that has not elected a Democrat to statewide office since Gov. Ronnie Musgrove's sole term ended in 2004.
As the results for Colom came in last Wednesday, MS NOW's longtime election analyst Steve Kornacki marveled at the highly unexpected nature of Colom's win.
"Listen, there's like, Lowndes County, 1,200 votes left. Colom is winning that by about 16 points, so he'll net votes from there," Kornacki told MS NOW viewers. "Jackson County, we've got about 1,600 votes. Hyde-Smith — they probably cancel each other out. I'm seeing a lot of counties that will probably cancel each other out. And the big thing that's jumping out at this is that the most remaining vote is in Hinds County. And of all the counties where there's remaining vote, where there's significant remaining vote, it's the one where a candidate has the most lopsided advantage. You know, Colom leading that by 60 points."
He later concluded, in astonishment, "You're looking at, really, a possibility here of Colom, the Democrat, winning this race."
Hyde-Smith's team also struggled to accept that Colom could win, especially as the margin between the two candidates narrowed to two digits.
"With the vast majority of Election Day ballots reported, the margin is measured in just dozens of votes," Hyde-Smith's team wrote during the counting process. "We have thousands of outstanding ballots, including affidavit and absentee ballots, which still must be processed and verified under Mississippi law."
Hyde-Smith added, "Our campaign is closely monitoring the remaining count. We remain confident that when every legally cast vote is fully and accurately counted, Mississippians will have reelected Cindy Hyde-Smith."
